We want to embrace the belief that the more we talk openly and freely about our mental health and wellbeing, the more help people receive and the less 'taboo' the subject becomes. With this in mind, let me start the week off with my own experience...

We are sending the weekend email out earlier than normal because next week you will be getting a daily dose of SMASH emails  As it is World Mental Health Awareness Day on Wednesday, and SMASH is all about physical and mental wellbeing, throughout the week we will be sharing personal stories regarding mental health and our perspective on this vast subject.

Sam here, wishing you a very happy weekend!! I can't believe it's already been a week since the marathon.... and I must say I am only just starting to feel like myself again! There is a weird combination of feeling amazing and also feeling slightly lost - I have all this spare time in which I would usually be running!  

September has well and truly arrived and in the fitness industry we call this time of year 'The 2nd New Year'. At this time we have a similar buzz in gyms to that which we find in January and February - members setting themselves new goals, re-discovering motivation and setting a routine they can keep to by building habits.

It seems that summer is coming to an end… We tend to get that “back to school” feeling at this time of the year bringing with it the push we need to make changes, let go of the things that are no longer serving us and to try new things.

We hope you have had a great bank holiday weekend? And if it wasn't great then we hope it was at least OK? In this technology charged world, where we are bombarded with happy faces on social media, it can look like everyone is having the best time - every day of the year!

In past emails we have touched on the importance of telling those closest to you how important they are and the impact they have had on your life. It's not always easy for us to talk about our feelings which is why we often say a good way for most to do this is to write it it down for the other person to read. …

What an amazing Saturday we had running the Pride 10k race in Victoria Park! It's now 15 months since I ran my first race and on Saturday I scored another personal best! Since that first race last year I have shaved off 6 minutes from my time and my next goal is to try and get under 45 minutes  As happy as I am with my time, and as much as I could use this email to talk about the importance of goal setting or challenging yourself or taking yourself out of your comfort zone (all very important!), I want to use the opportunity to talk about Pride again